Jared Padalecki's Eternal Sunshine
| Fanwork | |
|---|---|
| Title: | |
| Creator: | petite madame |
| Date(s): | 2012 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | J2 |
| External Links: | online here |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Jared Padalecki's Eternal Sunshine is a 71-page fan art book created by petite madame as part of spn cinema, a Livejournal community that invites Supernatural fans to recast their favorite movies with Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki. The art book is based on the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in which two lovers quarrel and then have each other erased from each other's memory, only for one of them to realize that they made a mistake and races to preserve his memories in the hopes of reconnecting again.
Art has been uploaded with the permission of the artist. The images in the gallery are sized to assist low vision readers; however click on the images for greater detail.
One of the challenges in shifting the movie to graphic novel form is how to recreate the movie's narrative voice. Here she uses a notebook where Jared records his thoughts and feelings - and also his art.
The notebook style also allows the artist to layer multiple pieces of story into one frame: the date, the heart shaped flowers and even the mug bought as apology. Because the graphic novel is read linearly, the reader does not yet know that this page will be an important frame later in the story.
Another stylistic choice is to offer reader's two versions of what is happening in the character's head. The raw emotional "I want to have him erased too!" message is prominently at the top in color, and the more conscious thoughts are below and typed.
Another choice was how to depict the erasing of memories. In the preceding picture the reader sees the unaltered photograph of a smiling Jensen holding his cat, followed by the piece by piece removal of personal details in this frame.
To illustrate Jared's change of heart and decision to not erase his relationship, the artist has him drawing an X over him signing the consent form, a blending of both past and current memories, a concept that echoes the blurred reality in the movie.
By offering the reverse view of the same scene on one page, the reader simultaneously "sees" the scene as if it were live, cutting back and forth between characters. Here, the imaginary Jensen who is being erased is asking the real Jared to remember "one thing". This entire scene is being played out in Jared's mind as the memory erasure procedure is happening.
This is the beginning of the key sequence in the graphic novel - illustrating the complete erasure of Jared's memories. In its online form, the reader will flip through the next few images and literally see the white space overtake Jensen's last request for Jared to "Meet Me In Montauk", the place they first fell in love. The erasure sequence will end in a completely blank white page.
The story - and Jared's memory, resets. We see the same journal cover page, only three years later.
The next image recreates the first page in Jared's journal. At first glance it looks identical, but on closer examination, once can see the heart shaped flowers crossed out. The text below is Jared saying he does not understand his compulsion to ditch work and go to Montauk. By subtlety changing what seems to be a familiar page, the reader begins to realize that not every memory may have been wiped out. It also forces the reader to look back at the first part of the novel, again playing with memory - this time the readers.
The novel follows a predictable path with Jared and Jensen reuniting. However, in this supposedly idyllic bedroom scene, there is an underlying tension, with Jared crossing out his doubts and drawing hearts around his pronouncement that Jensen is the perfect partner. This is the flip side of the earlier bleed through of Jared's supposedly erased memories. While those partial memories may have reunited the two lovers, the underlying issues that pulled them apart may not have been resolved.
The subsequent reveal of the issues that drove the two men apart is followed by the surprising realization that the issues that frustrated them before, were insignificant this second time around. Here the artist breaks the "4th Wall" by shifting from realism to cartoon style. Jensen beams happily, while in the background two sad clouds leave with their luggage and a gold star proclaims: Sadness go away! The cartoon could almost be Jared's drawing of the scene.
The last few pages of the graphic novel are in full color, signaling the emotional connection between Jared and Jensen. In the bottom pane, Misha Collins, another actor from the TV show Supernatural, is a stand in for the doctor who erased both Jared's and Jensen's memories.
The last page in Jared's notebook recreates the major themes of the graphic novel: the watch (signaling time), the Polaroid camera (memory), and the word "Who" in the upper half (signaling identity). And upside down the text "It wasn't the only thing I was going to forget" - the moment when Jared realized that erasing his memories of Jensen would remove the good as well as the bad moments. And scribbled across it all are the surreal drawings that someone might do while sitting on a train, waiting to pull into Montauk station.
